L Ermitage

L'Ermitage, for 16 years a favorite restaurant of Los Angeles' well-heeled, movie industry crowd, is up for sale--shut down in the face of management fatigue. Dora Fourcade, who with her brother, Jean-Pierre, has owned the posh West Hollywood eatery since 1986, said Monday that the restaurant had been doing steady business. But the siblings decided to sell because she was becoming overwhelmed dividing her time between the restaurant and her young children.

One of Los Angeles' most elegant and expensive restaurants celebrated its 15th anniversary this week. On Sunday, the owners of L'Ermitage, 730 N. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles, (213) 652-5840, invited former chefs to come back and cook for a party. On Monday, the restaurant rolled its prices back to what they were when the doors first opened. But what about Tuesday and Wednesday and . . .? After all this time, I wondered, how's the restaurant really holding up? Very well, thank you.

The evening began with the French way of greeting, hellos followed by a flurry of kisses on both sides of the cheeks. The French also have their way of putting on a dinner party, which was really what Sunday night's festivities were all about. The dinner laid to rest the theory that too many cooks spoil the consomme. Michel Richard of Citrus, Jean-Claude Bourlier of Le Dome, Patrick Healy from Champagne, Claude Alrivy from Le Chardonnay and Michel Blanchet from L'Ermitage toiled together in Blanchet's kitchen preparing a five-course meal--the caloric count of which, one guest pointed out, was "off the wall."

L'Ermitage Hotel, one of America's most highly rated inns and a favorite Los Angeles-area resting spot for celebrities and wealthy businessmen, has been forced to seek bankruptcy protection because of the continuing financial problems of its principal owner, Severyn Ashkenazy. According to court records, the Ashkenazy concern that owns the luxury-suite hotel, a partnership known as 9289 Burton Co., filed a petition under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

Ashkenazy Enterprises, which runs some of the toniest hotels in the Los Angeles area, filed for bankruptcy protection Thursday to head off a foreclosure by Southern California Savings & Loan on one of its hotels in West Hollywood. The hotel and real estate company said it filed a petition in Los Angeles under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code that will allow it to continue normal operations while it draws up a reorganization plan to pay off creditors.

Trends in the hotel industry through 1990s are expected to center on market-share increase, stratification, economical justification for an operation, greater profits through increased performance evaluation of management companies and operational analysis. These points were stressed by R. Britton Colbert, director of Leisure Times Advisory Board of Laventhol & Horwath at a Hyatt Wilshire luncheon program of the Los Angeles chapter of the Society for Marketing Professional Services.

If you have any desire to sit down at one of Los Angeles' most elegant and expensive tables, around noon would be a good time to do it. Three weeks ago, for the first time in seven years, L'Ermitage (730 N. La Cienaga Blvd., West Hollywood (213) 652-5840), began to open for lunch. Those who were surprised by the move will be even more surprised by the prices. "It is L'Ermitage food and Moustache Cafe prices," says Chef Michel Blanchet. Well, not quite.

Take the soap, for example. (And many guests will.) The well-known sliver has melted into hotel history, and now two plump beige ovals of French milled soap sit pristine on a small rattan tray. Sharing the tray are trial-size bottles of shampoo and bath gel, a bottle of Givenchy for Gentlemen and that traditional hotel amenity--the plastic shower cap. Take the beige terry robes, trimmed in brown, folded on the long marble dressing table.